Indeed, Chris asks the big questions that we all should be asking:

“We’ve moved from asking our neighbors to believing advertising to asking people we’ve never met what they think about an issue. How does this work? And if you represent a business, how can you be sure that YOU are trusted?”

Chris and Julien Smith wrote this cool book, coming out August 24, called: Trust Agents: using the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust. This is actually the first book I’ve seen that deals with such an important topic.

I don’t know about you, but every day I get inundated with requests for my time (and money). Who do I trust?  The man from NZ who went bust, and wants me to come down there FOR NO MONEY and put life back into his company (he’ll let me stay for free at his home) and then take some of the profits whenever that happens? Am I supposed to trust him because he came through FOUR people that I didn’t know in my Linked In network?

What about the woman who wants me to speak at her company because she liked my article on dancing?  Or the three people who wrote today saying they’d help me promote my book if I”d promote theirs – and I have no idea who they are? Do  I spend hours and hours on line checking everyone out? Give it to my web guy and have him check them out? Do I delete these names and possibly throw away some good possibilities?

Enter Chris and Julien. They will tell me how to know who to trust and how to be trustworthy (so I can ask perfect strangers to work for me for free in exchange for a stay in a cool loft in Austin…. only kidding.): The book “focuses on methods of building trust and wielding influence, and how these efforts impact business processes and goals. … the book defines the landscape of this generation’s web, explains who trust agents are, and analyzes the mechanics of trust in today’s economy where reputation is key.” Have a look at the book and pre-order it.

And, if you want to know how to market on the net so that site visitors will understand how to choose you over the competition, Chris is your guy. He’s the one-stop-shopping for all things relationship/value based. After all, that’s how our buyers are buying, and our competition can easily match our information and product offerings. But who gets trusted? Who has the real value?

Chris is the President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. He’s also the kingpin behind the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms.

Online Marketing = Chris Brogan.

Call him. Tell him Sharon Drew sent you. And tell him you trusted what I said about him.

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Who Do You Choose To Trust On The Net? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com